Names: Stephanie Kacandes and Anthony MarottaAges: Both 32Occupations: Financial saleswoman, mortgage brokerHometown: Los AngelesRelationship: DatingThis competitive couple is hoping to be engaged by the end of the Race. Back together again after a year-long break-up, Anthony says he will propose to Stephanie if they make it through the Race.

Even though theyíve overcome many of their differences, their constant bickering would suggest otherwise.

Anthony, a mortgage broker, describes himself as adventurous and entertaining. He enjoys talking sports, hunting and poker. When asked what country heíd most like to visit Ė Anthony said Italy because heís 100 percent Italian and has yet to visit.

Stephanie is a financial saleswoman. She loves meeting new people and learning different cultures. She describes herself as outgoing, funny and athletic, and loves competition.

Both of them are eager to Race around the world and put their relationship to the test and ultimately prove to everyone Ė including themselves Ė that they do belong together.

Personally after reading them up...I really dislike their whole demeanor. Anthony looks like the new Ray from TAR7 along with a new Deana. Every other team had a substantial entry...I mean they all seem to have good relationships and wont have too many major blow-outs. All of the other 10 Teams entries had stuff on their personalities and nothing too negative. Anthony and Stephanie's profile says directly "their constant bickering would suggest otherwise". This for me is a sure sign for a all new Nathan and Jen. Something I really didn't want going into the new cast list...looks like I found them. And I do know that the race wouldnt be the same without its long line of bickering couples but I really dont get any vibes from this team

Unfortunately, If I had to put the teams in order of my favourites for this season so far I would have them at:

11th/11

P.S: Sorry for spoilers puddin, I saw the post for "spoiler free zone" but forgot about this post!

Logged

'We are the makers of music, and the dreamers of dreams' - 'To roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live'.

It's too bad that this team is getting ignored. So far it looks like they could be nice people - and they have gotten along much better than Terence & Sarah! At least in the very few clips we have seen of them.

Logged

"The authority of example and considerations of character, unlike pudding, are not whipped up in an instant." - Neal A. Maxwell

The Amazing Race 13 is off to an unusual start, mostly because there are no obvious villains. Ken and Terence had a bit of a run-in in last night's episode, but it was quickly smoothed over. The eliminated pair of Anthony and Stephanie confirmed the universal love by saying they liked everyone and plan on staying in touch with the rest of the cast.

Little skirmishes aside, The Amazing Race is still back with plenty of action, excitement and travel, except for teams like Anthony and Stephanie. The couple spoke to BuddyTV after their elimination about the role of luck on The Amazing Race, the countries they wish they had gone to, and the things the producers left out.

What was the biggest difference from what you expected going onto the show and then actually doing it? Was it different than what you expected?

Stephanie: It was much harder, definitely. Watching it on TV and actually doing it is completely, itís much, much harder.

Anthony: Itís a lot quicker than we imagined. Like when you watch it on TV you think they have more time to do things, but all the stuff you in between the challenges, itís just so critical that you move at a good pace and keep with up everybody. I think that was a little bit of our downfall, we were a little bit slow in between the challenges.

Is there anything that they didnít show in the two episodes that you thought that they should have shown? What made it versus what didnít?

Stephanie: The last taxi, the last episode last night that we were on, of course our taxi didnít work. But then we got into another taxi and that taxi got lost. So they didnít show that part, so we had pretty bad luck with the taxis.

Anthony: Thereís a good clip on CBS.com of behind the scenes when we first got into the cab after it broke down on us or didnít start, and it emphasizes how frustrated we were when we fell behind in the last episode in Fortaleza. It was obviously not our fault, we were frustrated, it was funny to hear myself talk about what went wrong. I wish they had elaborated more on that in the episode to make everybody know that we were definitely behind and we were chasing everybody at that point.

So if thereís one component that is important in winning The Amazing Race, is it really just that luck of getting the right taxi? What plays the biggest role in getting to the next leg?

Stephanie: Itís definitely a combination of everything, but itís luck. Luck is up there like 70 percent. You get lost or you get a bum taxi or your car breaks down, youíre just screwed, thatís it.

Anthony: There are little things you can do to improve yourself. Like for instance, we over packed. We had bags that weighed 40 or 50 pounds each and I figure that slowed us down significantly. Little things that we should have prepared for before the race started I think would have helped us at least.

Before you went on this, was there one destination that you were hoping to go to but didnít because you were eliminated so early?

Stephanie: Yeah, I had three. I had wanted to go to Greece, Italy, and Africa.

Anthony: I just wanted to experience a couple different continents. We only got to go to South America. Which is fine, I definitely wanted to go to Brazil at some point in my life, but I was hoping that maybe we could have gotten to Asia or somewhere in Europe. Just to experience it one right after the other would have been an unbelievable experience.

You didnít have that much time to interact, but did you have a favorite or least favorite team that you got along with or didnít get along with?

Stephanie: We got along really well with everyone. It was great, everybody was great.

Anthony: Everybody was a class act. Weíre going to remain friends with most of the teams and stay in contact with them. When we got eliminated we really didnít have one team that were pushing for to win because we were like, wow, we got to become friends with such great people. We were really appreciative of it.

Anthony Marotta and Stephanie Kacandes had hoped for their experiences in The Amazing Race to last longer.

The Dating Couple" began The Amazing Race 13 along with the promise that if the couple emerged victorious, Anthony would also propose to his on-again-off-again girlfriend. However, after struggling with Brazil's taxis and failing to make up ground in between tasks, Anthony and Stephanie became the second team to be eliminated from the show in last night's broadcast on CBS.

On Monday Anthony and Stephanie spoke to Reality TV World about why they lagged so far behind in the race's second leg, how traveling through Brazil made them more grateful for the lives they lead, and what their time together on The Amazing Race has done for their relationship.

Reality TV World: How'd you both end up on the show? Whose idea was it?

Stephanie: Well I've always been a big fan of the show. I've always loved the show and I've always said "Oh my gosh we'd be great on [the show]."

We're both athletic and everything else. And all of our friends kept on telling us "Oh my gosh you guys should go on The Amazing Race!" So that's how it came into play and we started applying and all that.

Anthony: I took the initiative to get the tape done that we had to send it so I give myself credit for that (laughs).

Reality TV World: Was this the first time you have applied for [the show] or had you done it before?

Stephanie: No [this was] the first time.

Anthony: We were lucky for sure.

Reality TV World: What was your game plan going into the race?

Anthony: When we first got to the beginning of the race we were looking at the rest of the couples and sizing them up and we thought that we had a really good shot because we seemed to be a little more athletic than most of them.

So we were trying to, basically, use our athletic ability in the challenges to push us further and faster, but it turned out that that really wasn't an opportunity for us in the first two legs of the race. I mean the whole race was won on the in-between things: you know the cabs rides, the airplanes, the running to this and there. The challenges weren't really it.

Reality TV World: Yeah, we hear a lot that it's usually the taxis that get you and not the challenges.

Anthony and Stephanie: Right.

Reality TV World: When we talked with Bertram van Munster [the producer of The Amazing Race] noted that [teams] could bring whatever they wanted with them for the race. Did you guys bring anything unique that you thought would help during the race?

Anthony: Too much. That's what we brought.

Stephanie: Yeah we brought too much. We over packed without a doubt. I mean we definitely had a watch that had an alarm on it to wake us up in the morning and that kind of stuff. We just overpacked. We should have packed completely lighter. Our bags were way too heavy.

Anthony: Yeah, [there was] nothing really unique that we packed. [Ken Greene] had a whistle that he used to hail down cabs -- which was a great idea -- I wish we had thought of something like that. But no, nothing really unique.

Reality TV World: Last week's premiere episode didn't really show a lot of you guys. How did you end up on the wrong ticket purchase line during the first flight out of LAX?

Anthony: We actually got to the airport in really good time. We were, like, the third team to make it to the ticket counter but we went to the wrong ticket counter and when somebody figured it out -- that we were at the wrong ticket counter -- everybody darted over to the right ticket counter and we ended up being one of the last teams.

So, you know, we unfortunately we did not make... we knew right away when we got in that line that we were not going to make that flight, so that was our downfall in the first episode: being one of the last teams.

Reality TV World: Also, it was a little hard to tell but it also looked like you guys were the last team out of the airport when you arrived in Salvador. What happened there, was that the start of your taxi problems or was it something else?

Stephanie: Yeah that was the start of the taxi problems that we had. And then we actually got into another taxi, which they didn't show, that got us lost. So we had two double-whammies with the taxis.

Reality TV World: Wow.

Anthony: Wait, you're talking about Salvador? For the first episode?

Reality TV World: Yeah.

Stephanie: Oh, the first episode...

Anthony: Yeah in the first episode... the taxi, nah. Well we were in the last group of people so I don't really think that our taxis -- in that episode -- were really that big of a deal. We were just a couple hours behind the first five teams, which caused us to be in the last group.

Reality TV World: Ok. And were you surprised to finish so low in the first leg? Did that serve as a "wake up call?"

Stephanie: Oh yeah, without a doubt! I mean, there was such anxiety you wouldn't believe it! We were just like "Wow! We really need to get [more] organized," and we did and I mean... We were on a plane and [we were asking other people on the plane] if they spoke English and Portuguese. And we got some guy who sat next to us to give us all of these [tips] on how to speak Portuguese, like "How to say this and how to say that."

We were getting super organized and we were closer to the front of the plane to get off. We just got out of that airport and just, bam! We just got killed by the taxis.

Anthony: Yeah I mean... at the end of the first leg we were kind of like "Wow. If we don't get our act together... we better step it up and make something happen quick because you don't realize how fast it goes by. So after the first leg we were definitely shocked at our position. We knew we were going to be in the last five because of the plane ride obviously, but when we got there in ninth place we were like "man that was a relief."

Reality TV World: When we talked to Anita and Arthur Jones last week they said that your flight during the first week had a holdover and that there had been some bonding of the teams. Did you make any friends or alliances during that layover?

Stephanie: Yeah. We made good friends with pretty much everybody. I mean everybody that was in the bottom half of us. Yeah, so we were friends with pretty much everyone.

Anthony: Yeah they didn't really show us communicating very much with the other teams. As we were saying earlier, a lot of the teams were really class acts. I kind of bonded with [Dallas Imbimbo] a little bit, and [his mother] Toni. Yeah we got along with everybody. We had some really great conversations that really weren't part of the show, which was unfortunate.

Reality TV World: Was there anybody that you didn't get along with?

Stephanie. Um yea I mean. I guess Marisa and Brooke, you know... we were on the [cargo] net with them during the first episode and yeah, we...

Anthony: (interrupting, to Stephanie) Hun! He asked if we DIDN'T get along with anybody.

Stephanie: Oh! "didn't"?!

Reality TV World: Yeah. "Did not" get along with anybody...

Stephanie: Oh. I'm sorry about that! No, no we didn't NOT get along with anyone.

Reality TV World: Ok. During the second leg it seemed like you couldn't get a [working] taxi no matter what [you tried.] Was that the main reason why you [finished last?]

Stephanie: Yeah because we were just 20-25 minutes, or a half-hour, behind everybody by the time we got those two bum taxis. And then you see us at the Spanish wall and, you know, there are still other teams there but what you don't realize because of the editing and the way the time framing is [that] they already had 20-25 minutes to figure it out.

Well when we get there and there are already [just] three teams there, well now we gotta try to figure out what the heck we're doing. It was just like, we couldn't really catch up.

Reality TV World: Yeah, well I was gonna say, for the second leg it seemed like you were in [last place] for the better part of it. Was that just because the taxis knocked you back and you just couldn't...

Anthony: ...there's a specific clip online of us behind-the-scenes and you'll see our conversation when we got in the cab that finally started up -- we were behind everybody -- and it really emphasized how frustrated we were about getting into the wrong cab in the beginning or Fortaleza so, yeah. That was the question, we answered it right?

Reality TV World: Yeah just that and if anything else had knocked you back besides the taxis?

Stephanie: That was it, yeah.

Reality TV World: And actually going off of that... how long did you two spend with the taxi trying to get it to kick over before you gave up on it?

Stephanie: I don't know. It was probably somewhere in between seven and ten minutes. And then our bags were locked in the trunk, so it was probably more like ten [minutes]. The guy couldn't get our bags out of the trunk and so that was time consuming. Then we got into another taxi and that guy got lost! It was... yeah... it was time consuming on the taxis.

Reality TV World: And were you aware that you were in last place [at that point] or did you not know where you were?

Anthony: We knew.

Stephanie: We had a feeling. We were hoping maybe somebody else's taxi broke down or somebody else got lost. I mean you never know absolutely, positively for sure ever. You're just having a bad feeling of "Uh oh, this isn't good."

Reality TV World: Going back to the Fortaleza flight, how did you feel about [Tina Greene] when she was taking credit for getting the larger [plane for the flight] and then cutting the line. That seemed to create a scene.

Anthony: We were grateful for that. We got the airport last, mostly because we were one of the last teams to leave, and when we got there we found out that we were going to be on the same flight as everybody so we were relieved. And then the word spread that Tina had actually gotten them to open up a new flight for pretty much all of us. So we were thankful for it for sure.

Reality TV World: During that Roadblock challenge, it looked like there were times people were cooperating each other and other times where they were keeping to themselves. Were people cooperating, and did you get any help from anybody?

Anthony: No um... everybody was so clueless as to what we really needed to do to get the thing done. I was kinda trying to take any kind of hint from anyone that I could. And there were a couple of people like [Nick Spangler] who came up and said something to me, and it was an obvious bluff. He was trying to tell me to look for the colors and the first letters of the words and the colors and I'm like "What is he talking about?" He was trying to slow us down, which is ridiculous because I pretty much figured it out in the same amount of time as everybody.

It's just that I got there 20 minutes or a half-hour after everybody. The solution to the problem was just to write everything down and to recite it to the guy, one of the words on the wall was the answer so... yeah.

But I talked to [Marisa Axelrod] a little bit. She was trying to help me and I was trying to help her. But, like I said no one even knew what we were trying to look for that, there was no help for anybody because they figured it out.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised it took Kelly and Christy so long to go check inside the yard for their taxi?

Anthony: I was doing the challenge while they were getting their taxi to go back to the Pit Stop and I didn't see at all what was going on so I didn't know how long it actually took them to get a cab. So I wasn't surprised because I wasn't even really aware. I was still doing what we were focusing on.

Reality TV World: About how far behind Marisa and [Brooke Jackson] do you think you were when you arrived at the Pit Stop?

Anthony: Well I saw them finish the last challenge and I was like "I hope that there's something left for us to do before we get to the Pit Stop because if there isn't they're gonna beat us." I mean they got in [their] cab and I was still trying to figure out the challenge. And so when I figured it out I knew we were either going to be eliminated or it was going to have to be some kind of non-elimination round.

Stephanie: Yeah we were probably about twenty minutes behind them.

Anthony: It was a lot closer than it [looked] on the show. [But] I mean we were pretty much crying on the car ride to the Pit Stop.

Reality TV World: Did the going on the show teach you anything about each other? Has it affected your relationship since?

Anthony: I think it's improved our relationship. We set out on this adventure to boost our relationship and to have an experience together that is going to strengthen us and get us out of our everyday routine, and that's exactly what it did. I mean, we didn't go as far as we wanted to, but at the same time we got a month's vacation in Acapulco [in sequester].

So I definitely think it gave us a little spark in our relationship. We're looking to do more things like that in the future.

Reality TV World: Stephanie, you said before going on the race that you wanted to get married soon or you two were probably going to have to go [your] separate ways. What‚Äôs the current status of your relationship, are you two engaged?

Stephanie: No not yet but it's definitely a possibility for our future.

Anthony: I mean they ran with that. I mentioned on the tape that I mailed in to get on [The Amazing Race] that if we won I would propose. They ran with that and made it seem like our whole story. I mean, yeah when the time is right we'll get engaged and get married. Because we didn't win the race right away they're assuming that we won't get engaged and get married. But that's not the case.

I think that we definitely have plans together for our future.

Reality TV World: What was your best experience on the show?

Stephanie: I think the dune buggies was the most fun. That was just a blast, that was so much fun. And just the high anxiety of the first leg. [We were] the second to last... at the back of the pack there so we were just relieved.

Anthony: So much of it was just a good experience. We can name probably 10 different things that we thought were a good experience because it was all so out of the ordinary. Like sleeping in the Amazon jungle for a night. That was rough but it was definitely a great experience.

Stephanie: And seeing the different cultures and the different people. It's just... that was fantastic.

Reality TV World: Is there any particular team you're rooting for to win?

Anthony: Well, we got along with everybody so well that when we got eliminated we were like "God bless the team that wins and hats off to them. They deserve it if they can make it through all the way." So we didn't really have one team we were pulling for or anything so...

Reality TV World: Were you aware that [Terrence Gerchberg] was upset that [Sarah Leshner] was talking to the other teams? Could I just get your opinion on what you saw there [between them] and what they did or didn't show on TV?

Stephanie: We didn't even notice that actually. I mean, I didn't.

Anthony: Yeah and when we saw it on TV. I mean, I told you earlier I can't even relate to how he was feeling because -- to me -- I think it would be an advantage to get to know everybody and to talk to everybody and he obviously didn't feel that way. So we just thought that was a little bit weird that he didn't want to talk to anybody or didn't want her to talk to anybody.

Reality TV World: Oh, and could you elaborate on the eye opening experiences you both had while looking at the Brazilian villages and their quality of life?

Stephanie: Yeah, I mean driving through those towns and seeing how some of those people live. I mean some of [the people] didn't even have shoes and no windows and no screens... their houses looked like it's gonna cave in any second. And the clothes line were down...

It was just heart wrenching for me and just puts things in perspective when I complain that we live in an apartment or that we don't have great clothes or we don't have this, or we're struggling and this and that. And it's like "Wow, at least we've got clothes and at least we've got a roof over our head." It just makes you grateful for what you do have instead of complaining about what you don't have.

Anthony: Yeah, it was definitely an eye opener. I had a good idea that's what it was like down there but when you're actually in the midst of it and actually experiencing it first hand, it makes you appreciate what you do have. And of course [because] we were on [The Amazing Race] we felt like celebrities because we had cameramen running around and stuff.

Stephanie: It was definitely a different experience from when you see it on TV and you're like "Oh," You know, [the commercials say] "feed these people" and "donate to this." But we were actually there and when you actually see it, it's a whole different mind set.

Reality TV World: What are you both up to now? Are you still in L. A.?

Stephanie: Yeah we're both still in L. A. I'm waitressing at the moment. My mortgage company that I work for went under -- of course -- and I'm waitressing and in between agents right now, and.. that's about it. I'm looking for a real job.

Anthony: We're trying to get back into the normal routine but unfortunately my career is slow right now [as well]. I'm a mortgage broker so, it's kind of like "What's next?" and either try to do something different or keep going with it. So, we'll see.

Where do you think you went wrong during the second leg?Stephanie: The whole situation with the taxis really threw us off. One was broken down and then our next one got lost. That really messed up our entire leg of the race, which got us eliminated. Anthony: The show really depicted the last challenge as our downfall, but the fact is that getting bad cabs is what put us behind. We spent the rest of the time trying to catch up to the other teams.

Anthony, I give you credit for actually trying to push a stalled cab.Anthony: I guess that was the wrong move, though.

When I met you in LA before the race, you said your motto was to be calm, cool and collected. Do you think you managed to maintain that?Anthony: I think we were a little too calm. We didn't realize how quickly we could be eliminated. We were waiting for a challenge where we could really surpass the teams, but the real race was the rush that we had to be in between the roadblocks and detours. We were a little too laid-back in the first leg when we finished ninth. We caught up with everyone but ended up falling behind again. Stephanie: We weren't that relaxed. We just had such anxiety about being in the back of the pack the whole time. We were just trying to catch up and we did when we got on the plane. As soon as we got out of the airport in Brazil, though, our strategy fell to pieces.

How did the race affect your relationship? Are you still together?Stephanie: Yes we're still very much together and in love. The race enhanced our relationship, without a doubt. I was surprised at how well we worked together. We do bicker daily. We're very opinionated and strong-willed, so we're surprised that we got along so well. I guess it was because we were on the same team. We found out in our relationship that we work really well together, which is great. Anthony: I wasn't really surprised. I knew that in order to win the race we'd have to work together as a team. Bickering and fighting would have slowed us down. We really didn't even have any opportunities to get irritated with each other.

Is there an engagement in your future?Anthony: I think so. We both went on this adventure to give our relationship a little boost. We wanted to get out of our everyday routine and we definitely did that. The race was short-lived, but we spent the rest of the month in sequester, which was a great vacation. I think it helped out enormously. We're looking forward to our future together. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be married in the future.

Anthony and Stephanie signed up for TAR to Ė say it with me Ė test their relationship. She wants to get married; he believes they need financial stability first. In the end, it wasnít disagreements that led to their elimination on the second leg of the race. It was those darn Brazilian taxi cabs.

Amazing Race bloggers Kynt & Vyxsin's Question: If there is one Amazing Race team that can relate to your qualms and battles with a "clutch," it is US. Our first deathblow in Italy was when poor Kynt literally BURNED the clutch in our vehicle to a CRISP, which cost us almost 2 hours. Although you arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil as one of the FIRST teams off the plane, you soon fell to LAST place due to the failure of your taxi's clutch. You all fought valiantly for the remainder of the leg and, up till the very end, we actually thought you were going to pull it off and avoid elimination. The show is so fast-paced it was difficult to discern how much TIME the taxi cab breakdown cost you. Can you give us an estimate of how long it took for you guys to get back "on track" after the incident? How much time was lost in that moment?

Anthony: The cab did us in a good 15-20 minutes, which caused us to be chasing the other teams the rest of the way.

What do you wish you had done differently that leg of the race?Anthony: We wouldnít have gotten into that cab. Other than that, thereís really nothing more that we could have done. We didnít feel like we had too many opportunities to pass the teams in the challenges. It was all more or less the in-betweens: the cab rides, the plane ride. If we couldíve done those a little better, than maybe we wouldnít have been eliminated.What didnít the audience get to see of your leg of the race?Stephanie: It wasnít just the cab breaking down. We got into another cab that got lost. That set us back more time. They didnít show that.Anthony: Thereís a clip on-line that really emphasizes our frustration of getting into that cab that wouldnít start. I just wish theyíd played a little more of that conversation so people could see how frustrated we were about being a good fifteen minutes behind everybody after that happened.At the airport, did Tina really persuade the airline to use a larger plane? Or was it a case of the airline recognizing that a TV show was being filmed, or a lucky coincidence?Stephanie: I donít know. We didnít even hear any of that.Anthony: When we got to the airport, everyone informed us that we were saved by getting on the same plane as everybody else. Everybody mentioned that Tina had done something that opened up a new plane, pretty much for us. We were very thankful for that, because without that we would have been way behind everybody.Tina was so insistent about getting on the plane first. Does what seat you get on an airplane really make that much of a difference?Stephanie: It definitely does, because if you get on first, you get off first and you can start running.Anthony: I donít think it makes that much of a difference to be honest with you. What are you going to get, a couple steps ahead of somebody? Because theyíre all going to get off at the same time. Everybodyís going to run as fast as they can to the cab stand. We were buried in the middle of the pack on the way to Fortaleza and we busted past everybody in a foot race, but thatís when got into the cab.At least as edited, Terence seems like an odd guy. Did you experience any memorable moments with him?Anthony: Heís a nice kid. Weíve gotten to know him. His footage definitely depicted him as being a little bit off. The relationship he has with Sarah is one that I cannot relate to because he seems a little bit needy to me in a lot of areas that I just donít understand. To me, it kind of seemed a little weird.

Did you realize that Kelly and Christy misread two clues?Anthony: Yes. We did notice that. Everyone we were watching the show with wondered what the heck they were doing, but it made perfect sense to me because I almost did the same thing. The [detour] clue had separate instructions. One was for one challenge. The other was for the other. We were like, ďWait a minute. Whereís this bottle?Ē But then that had nothing to do with Beach It. They fell into that trap and it set them back. We still didnít catch them.You said some beautiful things about how seeing how people lived in Brazil made you appreciate what you had. Did that lesson stay with you after the race?Stephanie: It put things into perspective. You see people that donít have any windows or screens and their houses look like theyíre about to crumble and theyíre not wearing shoes. Here you are complaining that you live in an apartment and you donít have great furniture, you donít have great clothes, the whole deal. It puts things in perspective that you should be grateful for what you have.

Anthony: Our hearts went out to the locals because we have so much more than they do. But at the same time our frustration was coming out in that things were a little bit messed up down there, like there was a good chance you were going to get into a cab that didnít work properly.How did going on the race change your relationship?Stephanie: I think it definitely made it stronger. Anthony and I do bicker. Heís Italian, Iím Greek. Weíre very strong-willed, opinionated individuals. I think we were surprised we didnít argue on the race because we were on the same team for once. We had a great time. It was a fantastic experience.Anthony: I think it helped enormously. We needed some kind of event or boost in our relationship to do something a little exotic that broke us away from our everyday routines. I think it made our relationship stronger.After you got eliminated, who were you rooting for?Anthony: I was rooting for Mark & Bill [the geeks]. It changed as were in Sequesterville because we were rehashing all the relationships we had with everybody. Everybody there was really good people so it wasnít that big a deal to us who won. We were rooting for a number of different people.When you got to Sequesterville, did the hippies greet you warmly?Stephanie: Oh, yeah. Theyíre fabulous. We absolutely love them to pieces. Theyíre just wonderful, loving and giving people. Theyíre just awesome.Anthony: We couldnít have asked for a more accepting, warm welcome. I think they were a little more welcoming than we were to the next couple that showed up. We were so depressed about the fact that we got eliminated. The rest of the teams that showed up were probably a little turned off because we were down in the dumps.What was your favorite experience from the race?Anthony: When we made it to the finish line on the first episode. Everything is so high tension that when we finally realized we were not going to be eliminated on the first leg of the race, it was a sigh of relief that we could relax for a few hours.What advice would you give to future competitors?Anthony: Our downfall was we over packed. WE had bags that weighed 40-50 pounds apiece. Sometimes I was carrying hers and mine at the same time. If I had to do this over, Iíd bring a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, thatís it.Stephanie: Ken had a great idea with the whistle for the taxi. Make sure you have a watch as an alarm clock to wake you up in the morning.

I think it may be instructive that Anthony/Stephanie elected to stop watching the Mexican wrestling (see Elimination Station video for episode 3) while the other teams (Arthur/Anita and Mark/Bill) were getting to know each other.

I think it may be instructive that Anthony/Stephanie elected to stop watching the Mexican wrestling (see Elimination Station video for episode 3) while the other teams (Arthur/Anita and Mark/Bill) were getting to know each other.

I thought that was strange. But then again, maybe Anthony lost his looks on the way to the arena and needed to go look for them. From the Bonnie Hunt clip that GeorgiaPeach posted, it appears that he never did find them.